Gaps-in-noise (GIN^©) test results in children with and without reading disabilities and phonological processing deficits

Abstract

Objective: To determine if the gaps-in-noise (GIN^©) test could differentiate children with dyslexia and significant phonological awareness deficits from a group of children with normal reading skills. Design: A prospective study of GIN test performance in two groups of children. Participants were administered routine audiological tests, a phonological processing test, and an auditory temporal resolution test (GIN test). Statistical testing was completed to determine if significant differences existed between groups on GIN test results and phonological processing measures, and to examine potential relationships between these test measures. Routine clinical analysis procedures examined the performance of the two groups from a clinical perspective. Study sample: Participants included 61 children between the ages of 8 years, 1 month and 9 years, 11 months, separated into two groups: children with dyslexia and significant phonological deficits (Group I); normal-reading peers with age-appropriate phonological skills (Group II). Results: Children in Group I showed longer gap detection (GD) thresholds and lower gap identification scores than did the children in Group II. Results of statistical and clinical testing revealed significant differences between the groups. Conclusion: An auditory temporal processing deficit is a factor to be considered in children presenting with dyslexia and phonological processing disorders.

Key Words::

• Auditory processing
• auditory temporal resolution
• dyslexia
• gap detection

Acknowledgements

Portions of this paper were presented at the annual meetings of the American Auditory Society, March 2009, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA, and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, November 2009, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no declarations of interest.

Note

Spearman's correlation coefficients were not derived for the articulatory image and the two GIN test measures as the articulatory image variable had a constant value (i.e. almost all the participants in both groups scored 8 on this subtest); thus, it would be statistically inappropriate to compute a correlation between a constant variable (i.e. articulatory image score) and a non-constant one (i.e. the A.th. or the percent correct identification score). However, given these observations, it is unlikely that a correlation existed between the GIN measures and the articulatory image measure.